A Hero's Promise
by sonyjedi1672
Summary: He promised to protect her no matter what. But what happens when the one he grows to love ends being the key to his possible demise? Can she promise to do the same? Rated T in the beginning, rated M for later chapters.
1. Honestly? Another lousy mission?

Disclaimer: I do not own the Naruto characters used in this fanfiction. All Naruto characters are property of Masashi Kishimoto. I am not using this fanfiction for my own profit.

Warning: This story is rated M for language, violence/gore, and in later chapters, lemons. Lemons or any other citrus fruit is used to indicate that there will be graphic sexual content at some point in a fanfiction. There is no yoai or yuri in this story. This story is strictly NaruHina, with possible hints of SasuSaku.

Summary: "Hinata…" he tried to continue. "Y-Yes…" she tried to egg him on a little more. The dreaded silence finally got to him and he spat out, "The other chakra system you saw was the nine-tailed fox!"

* * *

Chapter 1: Honestly? Another lousy mission?

"How can this be A-ranked, grandma, honestly?" Naruto rambled, "This is barely C-ranked! Do I really have to do another retrieval mission?" he whined. "Don't start it with me!" Tsunade retaliated, "We already have all of the other missions covered! And this is an A-ranked mission, because what you are retrieving has VERY important information! I also thought that you would want a mission instead of just sitting around." Naruto did agree, but still wanted a different mission.

Hinata, who was standing right next to the knuckleheaded sage, had a why-does-he-always-do-this look on her face. "W-We'll do our best Hokage-sama," she whispered. "Good. Now. Your mission is to go to the hidden snow village and get the scroll of Massive Healing and come back! This mission should only last you a week, tops." Tsunade said. "Yeah, yeah… Hey! Where's everyone else?" he insisted. Hinata lowered her head slightly in a mournful way. Tsunade saw this and thought it was better not to cause heavy drama right before a mission. She hated having to explain things further, especially to someone as exuberant as Naruto. "He'll find out later anyway," she thought. She frowned, "Everyone else is on missions, and Sakura is under a special mission with the ANBU medical team. Besides, Hinata is the best navigator out of all the teams, and next to Sakura, she is also an equally excellent medical shinobi." Hinata sported a healthy blush. She wasn't so used to having such praise implemented toward her.

Tsunade had some of her normal authoritive bark when she spoke again, "And since she has the most brains in this group, she will be the leader of this mission. Naruto, you protect her and make sure that Hinata and the scroll come back safely. If this scroll is lost or if the mission fails, heads will be ROLLING and I'll send your sorry asses back to the academy! Do I make myself clear?" "Y-yes ma'am!" stuttered Hinata. There was a long pause. "Do I make myself clear, Naruto? HEY!"

Just to piss her off, Naruto was sitting on the floor contemplating what kind of ramen he should pack for the trip. "There's barbeque pork, chicken, beef, oriental flavor…" "Naruto! You pile of shit!" Tsunade barked and threw a random book at him making Hinata gasp with worry. "After all of these years, you would think that you would be just a little bit mature! But no! You are still a little miscreant brat! Why can't you act your own age for once!" she barked.

Naruto groaned and rubbed his head while he slowly stood up. "Jesus, grandma! I was just kidding! You don't have to throw shit at me!" he pouted. Tsunade's growl was lethal, and Hinata stepped in before things escalated even further. "W-we should probably get g-going now. We d-don't want to be late picking up the s-scroll…" she said rushed. Naruto flashed his usual determined, foxy grin in agreement, "Yeah, grandma! Don't worry!" He threw Hinata over his shoulder, making her yelp and blush profusely. "Hinata-chan and I will get your stupid ol' scroll and come back!" He then put up two fingers to his lips and the two of them vanished into thin air. Tsunade shuddered with anger while sitting back in her chair, but then smirked, "The kid already knows the apparition jutsu now, huh? Heh… punk kid. I'm getting too old for this bullshit… Where's my sake?"

Naruto and Hinata were now outside of the Hokage's mansion. Naruto landed softly on his feet and set Hinata down. He said, "Okay, I'll go pack up and meet you at the village gates in an hour, okay?" Hinata was still crimson from Naruto hoisting her up. "O-okay," she politely smiled, waved, and went dashing toward her family's mansion.

* * *

Notes: This is my first real ongoing fanfiction. I made the main characters at least 18 years old in case anyone needed clarification on that. For those of you who are on deviantart and recognize this, this story was on my old account. But I am not posting up there anymore because I canceled my account. I will try and update weekly or sooner so there is not much gap in between the chapters and hopefully they won't all be small like this one. Comments, suggestions, or flames are welcome. I would just prefer suggestions to help better my writing. Thank you for reading. :D


	2. Before Departure

Disclaimer: I do not own the Naruto characters used in this fanfiction. All Naruto characters are property of Masashi Kishimoto. I am not using this fanfiction for my own profit.

Warning: This story is rated M for language, violence/gore, and in later chapters, lemons. Lemons or any other citrus fruit is used to indicate that there will be graphic sexual content at some point in a fanfiction. There is no yoai or yuri in this story. This story is strictly NaruHina, with possible hints of SasuSaku.

* * *

Chapter 2: Before Departure

Shortly after she ran off, Naruto walked back to his apartment in the slums. While briskly strolling down the street, he was a little peeved for the way Tsunade talked to him in her office.

"Even after years of being around her and how many successful missions I've had, you would think that she would stop talking to me like a baby!" he grumbled to himself, "She knows perfectly damn well I would never let anything happen to Hinata-chan or the scroll. And I'm pretty sure Hinata-chan knows that too."

His mind wandered back to the chunin exams where he first vowed revenge for her and claimed back her honor from Neji. The promise of a lifetime. He remembered, also, the conversation with her before his fight with Neji. He felt so assured and calm after her pep talk. He even remembered saying that he liked people like her, even if she was a little weird.

He chuckled a little, "A little weird? She still is pretty weird. But, she is nice to everyone."

When he reached his front door, he heard a deep, annoying voice call him.

"Naruto!"

He grimaced. He didn t have the rent money for him yet.

He sighed, "Yes, Mr. Suwichi?"

The old, fat, creeper came up closer to him and simply hissed, "Rent?"

He shrugged, knowing it was coming, "Uh... yeah... well I don't have all of it right now."

Mr. Suwichi s face crinkled with disappointment, "You're three months behind now."

Naruto interrupted, trying to appease his landlord, "I know, Mr. Suwichi. I m sorry. I'm headed out on a mission in a little bit and will be back with the rent for this month in a week."

Mr. Suwichi sighed and muttered back, "I should kick you out, but fine. I'll expect the money in exactly one week. Or you're out!" he stormed off.

Naruto flipped him off and stuck his tongue out when his back was turned and jerked the door handle open.

He shut the door when he got inside, and walked immediately into the kitchen and pulled out some cups of ramen to cook while he packed. He prepared the boiling water and poured it into the cups while he went to his dresser in the living room. He pulled out several t-shirts and sweats and packed enough stuff to last him a week. By the time he was getting to packing food and weapons, his back pack was only one fourth full. He had always been a light traveler; it left more room for ramen and kunai. As he was grabbing his weapon s holster off of his nightstand, his eyes stumbled upon a picture.

No. THE picture. The picture that was a constant reminder of his failure.

His one promise that he hadn't kept.

He knelt down and rested his chin on the table and was at eye level with the former team 7. He stared down at the snarling Sasuke with chagrin and longing; wishing things were different. Wishing he hadn't disappointed Sakura, Kakashi, and Sasuke. He couldn t keep him from fulfilling his dark intentions and watched them manifest into hatred.

"Sasuke-kun," he whispered, "I will keep my promise to both you and Sakura-chan. I promised that I would bring you back," he paused, "But more importantly, I promised you that I would protect all of my friends no matter what. That includes you too."

He realized what time it was and cursed himself for letting his ramen cook for too long. He rushed into the kitchen and faced the music.

His ramen was soggy. "God fucking dammit!" he yelled.

He slumped over the lukewarm cup of noodles and picked it up, annoyed. "Oh well," he said, "Better than no ramen at all."

He quickly chugged down three cups of ramen, cursed himself again when he looked at the clock, grabbed his back pack, and left; hoping Mr. Suwichi wasn't stalking his door like he usually did.

* * *

Meanwhile, Hinata was in her room, packing for the trip. As expected of her personality, her room was spotless and immaculate just like the rest of the house. It had to be. Her father would have a fit if there was even one thing out of place. God, how she hated him.

"I'm 18 years old and I don t even have my own apartment yet," she thought sadly.

She packed along an entire stock of medical supplies first, and headed toward her small dresser. She pulled out the top drawer and saw the purple, lacy panty.

She twitched, "Ten Ten-sempai, w-why did you have to embarrass m-me?" she groaned.

She got it for her as an 18th birthday joke and said that she could use it for Naruto. The very thought of it made her blush 200 shades of red.

"Ugghhh, why?" she whined while banging her head against the dresser, trying to purge her mind of naughty and subliminal images.

She quickly stuffed it in her backpack along with a wardrobe fit for a week s worth of traveling. She sighed, sat on top of her bed, and looked over at the clock. I should be going soon. She sighed again, closed her eyes, and laid her head on the bed.

"No..." she whispered. She heard the voices again.

The voices that screamed through the walls. They were more cantankerous than usual today.

From any other person observing inside, they would say that the house was completely silent. But Hinata was much more observant and susceptible to these unheard voices. She could tell what was being said behind her back. She always knew the hidden meanings behind everyone's lies. She knew everyone's true intentions. It was her curse and her punishment for being of no use to her father and a disgrace to her family. These voices were daunting and malignant when they decided to harass and break her down; but simultaneously, they gave her a sad sort of solace and comfort.

It was the silence in the house that was unbearable.

It reeked of broken spirits or dreams struggling for life. She saw everyone's real emotions behind their eyes, and she didn t need byakugan for that. It was her 6th sense. She could see the empty, glazed, and distant look in most of their eyes. They were broken, numb, and hopeless. It was as if they were the living dead, walking aimlessly around the halls as if unconsciously seeking freedom. It made her want to cry; seeing the tortured souls of those who were once vibrant and promising people.

Now all that's left is a hollow shell with nothing to win or lose.

Suddenly, she heard a knock at the door. Stunned, she approached the door and opened it to find to her surprise, Neji.

"Oh! G-Good morning, N-Neji-niisan," she spoke quietly.

"Good morning, Hinata-sama," he replied non-chalantly. She beamed a shy smile. He gave a small one back.

Ever since Naruto went off to train with Jariya, relations between the two of them had significantly improved. Neji now didn t have as much animosity and hatred toward her anymore, and they could actually uphold a normal conversation. But he still thought that his cousin was weak-hearted and wished that for once she would stand up for herself.

It was the main reason for the dry lump in his throat now.

"Hinata-sama," he continued, "Your father wants to talk to you. He says it's urgent." He looked down; trying not to make eye contact with her. He didn t want to see the look of knowing in her eyes. He didn t want to see the look of accepted fate. He wanted her to fire back for once; prove that she won t put up with other people's shit.

"I'm sorry, Hinata-sama," he said solemnly.

She could sense how hesitant he was before he said that her father wanted to see her. They both knew what this was about.

"N-Neji-niisan," she spoke softly, "its n-not your fault."

He looked down at her with shock. "I know Hinata-sama," he continued, "but you really should stand up to him. You're like his dog for Christ s sake! He tells you to get on the ground and you practically throw yourself at his feet. It's disgusting how he treats us! Especially you! For once, just slug him in the fuckin jaw!"

Hinata gasped at Neji's suggestion, "N-Neji-niisan! D-don t talk like that!" she whispered, "He might hear you!"

"Bastard deserves it..." he hissed quietly.

"N-Neji-niisan," she hesitated, "Uh, I-I should probably go."

Neji frowned and sighed. He put his hand on her shoulder, "I ll walk you there and stay outside the door."

Hinata blushed and shied away, "Y-You don t have to do that n-niisan..."

He interrupted with, "I want to, Hinata-sama. Please. Let me."

She sighed and finally gave in, "O-Okay Neji-niisan. J-Just promise m-me one thing."

He looked at her surprised, "Okay. What?"

She smiled a little, "P-Please don t call me sama. Just say n-niichan. Okay?"

He chuckled a little, shook his head, and used his arm to guide her down the hall to her father's office, "Alright, Hinata-niichan."

* * *

It took a minute or two to get there, but Neji and Hinata finally stood in front of the door to her father's office. Hinata grasped the handle and took deep breath.

Neji rubbed her shoulder and whispered, "Remember, I'll be out here. Okay?"

Hinata smiled. She was glad to at least have a relationship with Neji. "O-Okay T-Thank you, Neji-niisan." He patted her shoulder, nodded, and stepped out of the way.

Hinata opened the door and continued down the small hall to her father's door.

She reached for the handle, but hesitated, and backed away a little.

Someone barked, "You may come in now."

She jumped. He saw her with his byakugan. Dammit all.

She grasped the door handle and slowly stepped inside.

"H-Hiashi-sama, y-you wanted to see me?" she stammered out.

"Yes, Hinata. Sit down." he pointed to the chair in front of his large desk.

She sheepishly approached the chair, gently sat down in the chair, and waited for him to speak.

Hiashi rubbed the sides of his temples and sighed deeply.

"Hinata... I think that you know why I called you here."

She lowered her head and mummbled, "I... I. Y-Yes, H-Hiashi-sama."

He growled and imitated her, "T-T-This is what I'm talking about!"

Hinata was silent.

He continued, "This stutter! Your lack of initiative! Your weakness! And not to mention how you last mission was a disaster!"

She had her head down and tried to swallow his harsh words and the memories of that mission. It wasn't working so well.

He rambled onward, "Some of our best shinobi, even Neji-san, was about to be formed as an ANBU black opp group, but they refused our offer! They didn't say why, but it is so perfectly obvious that they refused our offer because our clan is about to undertake a weak, spinless, cowerdely leader!"

She was shocked and hurt none the less. It wasn't necesserily the words that hurt; she was used to the usual harrassment. But the fact that she had held back Neji from acheiving success was what hurt her the most.

She belived him, "H-He's right... I-I am weak..." she thought.

Hiashi calmed himself down and replaced his anger with cold bitterness, "You have done enough harm to this clan enough as it is..." he sighed, "The Hyugga commitee members and I have all decided to take care of this problem once and for all."

Hinata held her breath and looked at him stunned. He stated harshley, "Excommunication."

She gasped, "W-What?"

"You are herby banned from this clan. You must leave immeadiately. I will give you 2 hours to pack up your things and you will leave and NEVER come back."

She felt her throat go dry. This wasn't happening. Well, she did always want to leave, but not in this short amount of time and not when she was about to go on mission with Naruto in 15 minutes.

"B-But, Hiashi-sama..." she tried to explain.

He spat angerily, "God, you're just like your mother!"

Now she cracked. She had found out not to long ago that her mother was not a Hyugga woman. She and Hiashi were forced into a pre-arranged marriage for the sake of gaining good relations with the water nation. She, of course, didn't rebuke her father's wishes and Hiashi's family had their hands tied behind their back. So the marriage went on until Hinata was born, and she died in the process of giving labor. From what the servants around the house said, she was a lovely woman. Kind, soft spoken, generous, and very artistic. She was the type of woman that was born ready to be a mother. They said that even Hiashi had started to take a liking toward her after a few monthes of living with her. The fact that he had brought her up just proved that he did care about her, even if it was just a little bit of affection.

And that was enough for Neji to hear.

He slid the door open roughley,"Hiashi-sama. That is enough."

He glared down at Hiashi.

Hiashi growled and gave his own little sneer to both of them, "Neji-san, you dare inturupt me?"

Neji still stood with his integrity and stated through dormant anger, "Hiashi-sama. She has a mission in 10 minutes. She should be heading out right now."

Hiashi scoffed, "Great. Just fuckin great."

He turned his gaze from Neji to Hinata, "I still expect you to pack up your things. I don't care if you have a mission or not."

He took his gaze off of her and pulled out a stack of papers, took out a pen and slid it toward Hinata.

"You must also give up your legal name as part of the process. You will no longer be Hinata Hyugga."

Her breath turned hard now. And Neji lost it.

Neji yelled, "What? What the hell is she supposed to do?"

Hiashi retaliated with equal anger, "I don't give a flying fuck! And one more outburst from you and you can expect the same fate Neji!"

Neji rebuked, "Hiashi, you son of a..."

Hinata stood up and and placed her hand on Neji's shoulder.

She spoke quietly, "I-Its okay, Neji-niisan... It m-must be done."

Neji looked at her shocked and almost disgusted, "Hinata-s... Hinata-niichan, its not okay! He can't just throw you out like that!"

She stopped him from saying more.

"R-Really, Neji-niisan," she continued, "I-It will be o-okay. I... I w-want to leave."

Neji said nothing. Too shocked for words.

She smiled a little at him, and then turned to Hiashi to sign the papers.

Hiashi smirked arrogantly at both of them and said, "See. This is what is best for everybody."

Neji growled and twitched a little.

When Hinata finished signing the papers, she bowed and said, "G-Goodbye, Hiashi-sama."

When she walked out of the door, Neji followed and asked, "Hinata-niichan, why?" She continued walking and said, "B-Because i-its whats best for everyone. I-Including me."

He was stunned, "B-But what are you going to do? You can't find an apartment in just 5 minutes!"

"I-I know..." she said, "Maybe I can just pack up the stuff that is important to me along for the mission."

Neji thought for a minute and came up with a better idea, "Hinata-niichan, I can keep your stuff in my room until you get an apartment."

"B-But Neji-niisan," she whispered, "Y-You don't have to..."

"Hinata-niichan. Its not a problem. I will take care of it for you. But you have to go now."

Hinata held back tears in her eyes, "T-Thank you, Neji-niisan."

He had no idea where it came from, but he quickly pulled her into a hug.

Hinata cried a little into his shoulder and returned the hug quicker than it was recieved.

Neji softely stroked her head and said, "Hinata-niichan, don't worry about it. We're family. Thats what family does for eachother."

She pulled away a little, nodded, and laughed; trying to compose herself, "Y-You're right. hehe."

He chuckled a little as well, then said, "Hey, you should get going now. It's..." he turned his head toward the hallway clock, "12:30."

She gasped, "O-Oh no! I-I'm a half hour late!" She hurriedly ran down the hall to her room, got her backpack and started to race out of the house. "T-Thank you, Neji-niisan!"

And she was out the door.

He leaned against her door frame and chuckled, "You're welcome, Hinata-niichan."

* * *

Naruto was pacing around the front of the village gates; anxiously waiting for Hinata. He not only waited the 30 minutes past the hour for her, but he was also 15 minutes early, and he was starting to get impaitient.

He always hated waiting for people.

"Where the fuck is she?" he grumbled, "I swear, Kakashi-sensei's tardy disease is spreading. If she's not here in 1 minute, I'm gonna go look for her."

He suddenley saw a figure hoping over the rooftops of Konaha. He squinted his eyes and focused in on the person.

"Well speak of the devil. Finally!" he shouted.

Hinata landed in front of Naruto and immeadiatley bowed her head, "I-I'm s-so sorry, Naruto-kun! I...I had some trouble I had to deal with at my house."

Sensing the fluster in her voice, he tried to lighten the mood, "Uh, its fine! Really!"

She lifted her head up and faked a pretty good smile. He noticed her eyes were a little red and water rimmed on her bottom lashes. "Uh, hey. Are you okay? Cause it really is no big deal!" he put on another goofy, cheeky grin.

She looked at him confused for a minute, but then realized his cause for concern.

"O-oh!" she wiped her eyes a little and silently cursed herself, "I-It's just my alergies. T-They usually start acting up d-during spring."

"Oh," he nodded; believing her, "Well, we can still get there if we hurry!"

He got in a running stance on the ground and shouted, "So lets go!"

He ran so fast that, you would swear that you heard a race car zooming away. "W-Wait! Wait! N-Naruto-kun!" she shouted and ran after him.

Two jonin standing by the gate enterance started laughing.

"Haha. Poor girl. She has to put up with that idiot for a week."

* * *

Notes: Wow a lot of parallelism in this chapter. Lol. I try to use honorifics as much as possible to be as close to the manga/anime culture. To not use an honorific means one of two things; either contempt for the person to whom you're speaking, or else it implies that you share a *very* close relationship with said person. I know that it seems like this is a NejiHina chapter, but it's not. I grew up in a family that expresses love and caring in that type of way, so I'm sorry if Neji seems out of character in the chapter. Oh, and everyone knows that they are on a mission for a week because it was the main article in that week's Konaha Daily News. lol xD. Comments, suggestions, or flames are welcome. I would just prefer suggestions to help better my writing. Thank you for reading. :D


	3. RLS Armistice OCD Orange Clean Jutsu

Disclaimer: I do not own the Naruto characters used in this fanfiction. All Naruto characters are property of Masashi Kishimoto. I am not using this fanfiction for my own profit.

Warning: This story is rated M for language, violence/gore, and in later chapters, lemons. Lemons or any other citrus fruit is used to indicate that there will be graphic sexual content at some point in a fanfiction. There is no yoai or yuri in this story. This story is strictly NaruHina, with possible hints of SasuSaku.

Guide: _Kyubbi speaking will be in italics _and when these: **** come up, it is a private conversation with the kyubbi unless said otherwise.

* * *

Chapter 3: The R.L.S Armistice and the OCD Orange Clean Jutsu!

She eventually caught up to him and, luckily, he slowed down to a was an awkward silence between the two. Naruto's nerves were on edge trying to think of a conversation starter. He almost jumped when she spoke.

"H-Have you ever been t-to the hidden snow village, N-Naruto-kun?" she asked.

He thought back to when he was a genin, "Yeah, I actually did, once. I remember that their princess was some bratty actress at first, but her uncle wanted to rule the place, so..." he continued on with his story for the rest of the way.

Hinata listened intentely and heard him talk for nearly two hours. She wasn't surprised to find out he had converted the snobby actress into a brave leader. She chuckled a little; it was so typical of him to exagerate the action scenes and make himself come out as the big hero.

"Hey! What's so funny?" he cocked his eyebrow.

"Oh," she smiled, "N-Nothing."

He looked at her questioningly but brushed it aside, because it looked like he found the gloomy harbor that they need to be at.

"Oh! We're finally here!" he said triumphantly with a finger pointing westward toward the harbor.

"O-Oh..." she spoke like she had been awakened out of a daydream.

"Let's go then!" he said, and once again, zoomed away like a runaway train. "W-Wait!" she shouted, but then sighed, "Crap... Here we go again..." she thought.

* * *

She caught up to him again and stopped on the port's deck and tried to catch her breath.

"Where does he get all of the energy?" she thought. Naruto wasn't even holding his breath or panting, and he was running faster than her.

He was still pacing around, looking for their ship. "Where is it?" he asked and turned his head to look back at Hinata. She had finally caught her breath.

She swallowed, "I-It should b-be around here somewhere." She started helping him look for the ship, "Tsunade-sama said it was called the 'R.L.S Armistice'."

Naruto nodded in understanding then started searching again. Hinata decided it would be easier if she just used her byakugan. She activated it and started searching the whole port until she found it.

"Over there!" she yelled, and pointed toward the end of the dock. They started running down the dock and stopped when they saw a large, metal, warship with the faded letters "R.L.S Armistice" on the side.

"Wow! Tsunade-baachan sent this for us?" Naruto said in bewilderment.

Hinata was stunned as well."Why would she send an armed military boat for a retrieval mission?" she questioned silently.

"W-Well, I guess Tsunade-sama w-was right," she said, "this must be an A-ranked mission."

"Yeah..." he responded.

After standing there a while, they both decided that it was time to climb aboard. They both started climbing the stairs, when Hinata slipped on something and started falling back.

She would have cracked her skull, but luckily Naruto stood behind her and grabbed her by the waist; preventing her fall. They both gazed at eachother for a moment or two... and suddenly, even Naruto had a sight blush on his face; realizing where his hands were.

She picked herself up with his help, turned her head away, and mumbled, "T-Thank you, N-Naruto-kun..." "H-He touched me! Eeeeeee!" she thought.

"Y-Yeah... sure," he replied.

Despite her little freak accident, they got up onto the top of the deck.

It's apperance on the outside of the ship did not apply to the deck in obvious was covered in grime in each creavice, and smelt liek dead bodies, rotten fish, sweat, and onions. And both of them,  
mostly Hinata, were intimidated by the men on the ship, who were giants compared to them. All of them towering over them and 5 times their weight in muscle, and all of them looke like they were going to eat them if they came near them.

She grimaced and groaned. She was the ONLY girl hear. "Why do I have a r-really bad feeling I'm g-gonna be ass raped?" she mumbled very candidly.

"What?" asked Naruto with a counfused look on his face.

"N-Nothing!" she said in embarrasment. "Oh god! Did I just say that outloud?" she thought. She was blushing 200 shades of red now, and she buried her head slightly buried in her swearshirt.

"Crap,crap, crap, crap, crappity, crap!" she thought, "Now he thinks I'm a freak!"

The poor guy was confused as hell, and none the less, didn't even know what she said. He just shrugged it off and started looking around for someone who didn't look too creepy to ask for the captin.

Failing miserably, he got frustrated and started to yell out something to the crew, "Hey! Anyone know where the captin is?"

Now, of course, Hinata will always love Naruto, but at this point in time, she wanted to strangle him for being a brainless idiot and putting all of the potential rapist's attention toward not just him, but her. She just hid inside her swearshirt even more, and shoved her hood over her head.

Judging by her reaction, Naruto started to realize that maybe he should have waited. All of the men were now glaring at him evily. He stood his ground and looked tough, but he was somewhat quivering on the inside.

****************************************************************  
_What's the matter, Naruto-baka? Scared of these pussys? Ha! I thought you were supposed to be the rambunctious and percoucious one..._

"Shut it. I just don't like the look in their eyes. That's all."

_Pathetic Whelp... If you can't stop being a pansy, I'll take over the reigns._

"Damn fox! Shut the fuck up!"

****************************************************************  
Naruto clutched his stomach and forced back the shuddering and the twitching.

Then he heard footsteps approaching him. He looked up and a portly, but youthful man in a navy blue uniform approached him. He had slightly graphite grey hair with a small beard, slate colored eyes, a tall figure, and a beak-shaped nose. Altough he might have looked a little intimidating at first, he had a warm smile on his face and stuck a big hand out to greet him.

"Well allo lad! The name's Capin Olaf! Who might you be?" Naruto's hand was being thrusted up and down and his whole body was shaking.

"I-Iaaaammmmmm NNNNaaarrrruuttooo... UUUUzzzuuummmakkkiiii!" The captin smiled heartely, put him in a neck lock, and gave him a painful noogie."Well good to have yar aboard, Naruto Uzumaki!" he laughed deepily.

Then he stopped, "Oh," and let Naruto fall to the ground coughing and gasping for breath after smelling the Captin's armpits. He walked over coily toward Hinata, "and who might you be, young lassy?" he asked softly.

Hinata poked her head out of her sweatshirt but still hung her head low in a shy way, "I-I'm Hinata Hy..."

She paused. She didn't have that name anymore. Shit. What would she say? She thought about it and went with, "I-I mean Shimizu."

Her mother's maiden name.

Naruto looked at her appaled. That wasn't her name! "Hey! But I thought it was Hy..."

Hinata inturrupted him, "H-Humiliating to say that name! Haha. Y-Yeah... I-It kinda is..." He looked at her like "What the fuck?", but she had a look in her eyes that begged him to shut up.

So he did.

The captin took off his hat and bowed while gently lifting her hand and gave it a small peck on her fingers, "Its' a beautiful last name, me lady."

Hinata stood frozen and blushed healthfully, then pulled her hand away slowly. "Well," he stood up and continued, "I best be gettin you two to yar cabin. We're about ta launch off soon."

They both nodded in agreement and followed Captin Olaf into a dark and cold cabin room.

Naruto walked back beside Hinata and whispered, "Why did the hell did you give him a fake last name?"

She whispered back, "I-I'll explain later...okay?"

"Okay..." he wispered back. Now he was really confused.

* * *

Hinata was suprised in both a good and bad way. They would be sharing a room... "Oh god..." she whispered. There was only one bed.

"Sorry 'bout the bed situation, mates!" Captin Olaf shouted.

Her eye just started involuntarily twitching and Naruto, still somewhat of a clueless idiot, wasn't phased by sharing a bed. Until it finally hit him that Hinata was with him...

He blushed a little, "Uh, its fine! I can get something set up on the floor."

Hinata interjected, "N-Naruto-kun! Y-You don't h-have to do that! Um..." she turned away.

Naruto looked at her, "Huh?"

Hinata went bright red, "W-What I-I mean is... um... w-we could share... T-The trip only lasts for t-two days anyway."

He looked at her shocked, but replied, "Um... yeah. O-Okay, Hinata-chan. As long as its fine with you."

She nodded feriouciously; trying to hide her beet red cheeks.

He smiled a little, "Cool. Uh... Thanks, Hinata-chan." And he turned his attention back to putting his stuff down on the stain-ridden, torn up, grody bedsheets.

Hinata's attention was back on the vile room. The bed was not the only thing completely cootie infested. The window was broken and let in the cold air. The lights needed to be replaced. A small desk had old crumpled maps all over the desk and random crap. The dressers were broken and took even a full shinobi's strength to open it. As for the bathroom... let's not go there.

Hinata shuddered even more and thought, "God! After the launch, I gotta clean this place."

She threw her backpack alongside Naruto's and closed the creaky door behind her as she headed up the deck. She caught up with Naruto and the Captin; who was overseeing the launch preperations, yelled, "Ah! Glad to see you could join us, lassy!" as he used his hand to call her forth.

Naruto smiled at her and she smiled back. It was starting to get really windy now, and a little colder. Hinata crossed her arms and stood next to Naruto. The both of them didn't really care much for the launch, but they wanted to be polite, and besides, it was better than being in that horrific room.

"All hands to stations!" barked the captin. All of the men scurried around the ship carrying heavy boxes and setting up the engines for launch. "All right, lads!" he called out, "Take 'er out o' here!"

And that was that.

Once the Captin got done babling about the quality of his leadership and boat, Hinata snuck off to a mini closet across the hall and found, old, dirty wash rags and a bucket with a simple bottle of orange cleaner. She scuttled back to the room and went over to the bathroom and filled up the bucket with water. She poured about half of the orange cleaner in with the water.

"I-It's a good thing that Anko-sensei taught me some more water jutsu."

Hinata, like Naruto, had been gone for almost three years training with Anko until her bones cracked and presicion strengthened. Now, Hinata could be at the ANBU black opp level, for now she had deadly accuracy and had extremely fast and fluid movement. On top of that, she was exceptionaly good at spying/hiding and already had a couple of signature moves. One of them is like a "silent kill". She could hit someone with her chakra while still being hidden and kill them instantly with no struggle of breath. And also, of course, her byakugan helped her out with navigation and for finding out an enemies chakra system. Even though she had all of this power, most of her fellow shinobi, her family, and even she doubted her abilities. She was too shy and polite to do anything significant in a battle. On top of that, this her first time ever being leader of a mission. She had to prove herself.

She started making hand signals. Then, she slowly picked her hands up and formed messy water orbs that floated only a couple of centimeters from her hands. She sent the orb flying toward the shower stall and made it splash all over the stall. It didn't look like much at first, but then something started to change. The shower walls were getting whiter and whiter and the orb slowly started to form again, only this time instead of having a orange tinge, the water was murky and black. She had been foucusing hard enough, and already started pouring tears of sweat down her face. Just as the orb got back to it's normal size, she made it slither down the drain pipe to grab all the nasty stuff out of there. When the orb finally resurfaced, she made it hover back over to her and went to the sink. With a simple snap of her fingers, the orb instantly collapsed and all of the water fell down the drain.

It continued on like this until the entire room and the bedding was clean. She made the bed, fixed the lights and the window, put all of the supplies away, and sighed. Tired, she fell on the bed and laid down for a little catnap. She heard the door creak open. Naruto had walked in and almost immeadiately noticed the difference in the room.

"Holy... Did you do all of this?" he asked.

"Y-Yeah," she replied, "I-It's nothing. I just d-didn't wanna have to sleep i s-someone else's... ugghh..." she visibly shuddered. He laughed in agreement, "Well, it does smell a lot nicer in here... Thanks, Hinata-chan!"

She chuckled a little and returned a cute little smile, "Y-You're welcome, Naruto-kun."

* * *

Notes: One of the most random chapters I have written thus far. haha.I wish I had Hinata's cleaning jutsu! It would make my life a lot easier! Especially with shadow clone jutsu! If you couldn't tell already, I was really inspired to right this chapter around one of my favorite movies, "Treasure Planet". I love that movie! Captin Olaf is based on Silver(second favorite character after Jim, cause Jim is freakin hot! xD) The boat name was changed a little bit to make it so I wasn't copying so much. lol. Comments, suggestions, or flames are welcome. I would just prefer suggestions to help better my writing. Thank you for reading. :D

P.S: ALL OF YOU MUST READ CHAPTER 500 IN THE SHIPPUDEN MANGA! IT IS SO FREAKIN ADORABLE! I COULD NOT STOP SQUEEING AND CRYING! xD LITTLE BABY SASUKE AND NARUTO ARE THE CUTEST THINGS I HAVE EVER FREAKIN SEEN! EEEEEEEEEEEEE! Gawd, I'm hyper! xD Anyway, go onto and they have a bunch of free manga to read and they usually keep updated with Japan on the english subs! yay! xD


	4. Reflections lead to Conforantation

Disclaimer: I do not own the Naruto characters used in this fanfiction. All Naruto characters are property of Masashi Kishimoto. I am not using this fanfiction for my own profit.

Warning: This story is rated M for language, violence/gore, and in later chapters, lemons. Lemons or any other citrus fruit is used to indicate that there will be graphic sexual content at some point in a fanfiction. There is no yoai or yuri in this story. This story is strictly NaruHina, with possible hints of SasuSaku.

Guide: Kyubbi speaking will be in italics and when these: **** come up, it is a private conversation with the kyubbi unless said otherwise.

* * *

Chapter 4: Reflection leads to Confrontation

The rest of the day went by fairly quickly and in kind of a daze. Hinata tried to seem interested in the conversation of the mess hall, but her mind kept on wondering back to plans of buying an apartment. She had estimated how much an average apartment would cost per month... $600, $750, $800? She didn't know... and it frustrated her to no end.

After Naruto had laughed at the sailors comments, he had looked over at Hinata. He slowly stopped laughing and stared. She had her hand on her cheek, staring into her still full bowl of ramen looking at the bronze yellow broth.

"Hey Hinata-chan, are you okay?" and had a small concerned look on his face.

She sighed, "Y-Yeah... I don't k-know. I think I'm just s-sea sick." Which wasn't necessarily a lie. She WAS feeling a little quezy and lightheaded.

He turned his body to face her and looked at her searchingly, "Yeah. You do look a little pale." He put his hand on her forehead, "Do you wanna go back to the cabin?"

She turned bright red, "Oh god! He's touching me again!" she thought. She nodded, "But y-you don't have to take me! Go a-ahead and stay here. I-I think I might just go to the bed."

"Are you sure?" he asked her.

"Y-Yeah..." she slowly slipped out of the bench and found her balance.

He leaned toward her, "Alright. Good night, Hinata-chan," he smiled at her.

She tried to give a small smile, but he could sense a little sadness in her eyes. As Hinata walked out of the doors, she happened to catch a glance at a young sailor staring intensely at her. He had dark brown eyes and flaming red hair that sharply contrasted with his pale white skin. He was not as tall as the rest of the crew, but he could still tower over her small figure.

She immediately looked away and rushed up the stairs; hoping to break complete eye contact with him.

* * *

Instantly, the cold and salty sea winds rushed to her face and into her lungs. She started to feel much better. She let her body shiver with clarity and let her long and silky hair fall out of her hood and let it blow and twist in the wind, which was growing more intense. It was starting to get stormy and she looked up into the dark grey skies, the navy waves, and the snow covered mountains. She smiled. She loved the eerie, dark, and mysterious aura it seemed to radiate. She then was startled by the sound of thunder. It wasn't loud, but more muffled by the dense clouds, and she saw the white flashes across the sky. Although it frightened her a little, she was mesmerized by the soothing voices of the sky.

She leaned against the guardrail and did what she did best. Listen. Another crack of thunder echoed through the sky. She chuckled a little, "Akamaru-san would have ran inside the cabins in a heartbeat," she thought.

She felt her eyes grow hot with forming tears, but wiped them away. "No," she told herself, "D-Don't start this..."

It then started to rain, hard. Hinata stared up at the sky, closed her eyes, and smiled a little. It made her think about of mother. Her family. Her life. She let the ice cold drops hit her warm skin. She breathed in deep breaths, and dove deeper into a sleepy trance. Her cheeks were now bright red from her face being bitten constantly from the icy drops that pounded on her face.

* * *

Naruto was a little genuinely worried about Hinata, however, he was kind of forced back into a conversation when a chubby, bald sailor looked at him with a smirk.

"What?" he asked defensively.

He chuckled, "Ya know... It's not polite to keep your 'friend' waiting!"

"W-What? N-No!" he said quickly, "Hinata-chan is just a friend!"

The sailor kept his smirk and rolled his eyes in disbelief, "Yeah, sure...Wasn't born yesterday, lad... Anyways..." he trailed off to talking about his old sailor stories.

Naruto tried to pay attention to the story, but he couldn't help but wonder what Hinata would actually be like as a girlfriend. But then he reminded himself that it would never happen. "She probably doesn't feel that way about me," he thought, "and besides, if she knew the real me, she would never look at me the same way again."

* * *

She lay on the bed trembling, haunted by her memories. She couldn't bear the burden of the secret storm raging within her, nor face the bitter reality that she was out casted by her supposed family, and how her beloved second family, her teammates, died in battle only one week ago. The pain was too real; too deep.

She whispered, "They're gone," like a quiet mantra that stung her raw throat with acidic despair while a subliminal montage of her fallen comrades bombarded her fragile mind.

The smiles, the goofy faces, the laughs, the heart to hearts, the tears, everything. She felt them everywhere; thickening the air she breathed.

She sobbed miserably as a clip of their deaths played through her mind.

*****FLASHBACK*****

"Kiba-kun! Shino-kun! No please! You're not dying on me!" Hinata screamed while hovering over them.

The two ninja lay underneath her hands, blood pouring out profusely from their chests and mouths. She had pulled them out of the intense battle and had been performing medical ninjutsu for at least 5 whole minutes trying to heal their fatal wounds but, to no avail, they were still dying. That is what happens, I guess, when the Akatsuki happen to run into you during an infiltration and retreival mission.

"Hi-Hinata-chan… D-Don't try so hard… Y-You n-need to save your chakra to esca…" Shino was cut off.

"N-No! I don't care if I run out of chakra! You're not dying! Not like this!" She yelled, ignoring Shino's plea.

Shino looked over at Kiba, who had Akamaru's limp head on his shoulder, and knew by the glazed look in his eyes that he was already gone.

Shino now whispered pleadingly, "Hinata… Please stop… It's just our time now."

Hinata's tears started pouring down her eyes again as she whimpered, "B- But…"

Shino stopped her by gently placing his now fairly cold hand on hers, and whispered, "Hinata… Every ninja as to go eventually. It's part of the life that we accepted. And besides… This is how we planned on dying…"

His hand slowly crawled up her arm and made its way to her tear soaked cheek and tried to brush of the oncoming ones from streaming further down her face. She looked at him pleadingly. Begging him to stay longer.

"We both got to protect someone we loved… Hinata…" and with one last gasp, his hand twitched and fell limp on his torso while he exhaled the last bit of life he had.

Hinata's head fell into his chest, trembling with shock and covering her forehead with his blood. While she still had her head in his chest, she pounded her fist into his stomach out of anger and let out a helpless, rage filled, scream. She collapsed even more slowly into him.

****END FLASHBACK******

Forever now, their faces would steal away her once pleasant dreams and replace them with sickening guilt.

"They died for me," she reminded herself every night. She felt ashamed; like she didn't deserve that kind of sacrifice. They had always been her kind of protective brothers that always came to the rescue if she ever needed them. They were the family she didn't have. The kind. The caring. The fearless. The brave. She would never measure up to what they were in her mind.

She remembered how she carried their bodies all the way back to the village so that they could soon have a proper burial. However, with all of this other stuff going on in her life, she was given hardly any time to grieve over them.

The large lump in her throat made her realize that it had been at least an hour that she had been crying. She cleared her throat and wiped her tears. She couldn't be in here wallowing in self pity. She stood up slowly and stumbled to a stand. She gently swayed back and forth to try and regain her balance and held her sweater sleeves up to her red, swollen eyes.

She solemnly meandered to the bathroom, jerked the cold water handle, and splashed crisp clear clarity onto her burning red cheeks and eyes. She looked up slowly into the mirror and ran some cold water through her thick, raven black and looked deeply into her own eyes. Before long, she stretched out her arms, exhausted from grief, cupped her hands under the stream, and drank the frigid water to cure the lump in her throat. She reached over for a towel and turned to look at herself in the mirror again.

She was a hot mess. She still hadn't changed out of her damp clothes from being outside and her hair looked mangled and wavy from tossing and turning on the bed. She murmured a curse word, reprimanding herself for looking so horrible.

She went back into the room and stripped off her damp clothes and proceeded to put on new ones. She was in one of her black tank tops and sweats that fit snugly against her figure. She was packing her clothes away when, suddenly, she heard the door creak open. She looked over and saw nothing there. At first she assumed it was the wind that blew open the door. But then she sensed something. Another chakra system?

She slowly went up to the door, kunai knife in hand. When she swung the door open, the sense was gone. She looked up and down the quiet, desolate halls and then slowly closed the door. When she turned around, however, a pair of two giant, white colored hands raced toward her and pounded her against the wall.

"Haha! You got her Dei- I mean Luzzu! You got her!" said a deep said a high pitched squealing voice. She immeadiatly yelped and squirmed to try and get out, but that only made the man's grip tighter.

"Yes, Gatta, " replied a low, haunting voice.

She turned her head toward the owner of the hands questioningly. She swears that she had heard that voice before…

It was the man that she saw on her way out of the gally! She inwardly cursed herself for being so careless. But that still didn't explain why his voice sounded so familiar.

"It took us a long time to track you down, my dear," Luzzu said casually.

She looked at them stunned. Why would they want to find her? How long had they been looking for her?

"Yeah! We want our little reliquary back!" Gatta shouted.

"W-What are you talking about?" she asked.

"Tobi-san! I can handle this!" _Gatta_ barked.

She froze. Tobi? Oh my god… It can't be them! She squirmed even more.

"Oh! Deidara-sempai! You just revealed me! Oh!" realizing what he had just said he covered his mouth.

Deidara snickered, "Well. There really is no need to keep up the disguises now that we have her, eh?"

They both suddenly had a small cloud about them. When the smoke cleared, it revealed none other than two members of the Akatsuki.

She struggled to try and break free, but Deidara only chuckled, "I wouldn't squirm like that if I were you. Only tires you out. That clay is infused with my own chakra. It's nearly impossible to break out of."

She went limp in defeat, and ordered, "What do you want?"

He snickered, "There! Now we're on the right track, eh?"

Tobi interjected, "Yeah! Where is that crystal?"

She looked at them stunned, "W-What crystal?"

Tobi yelled, "Don't lie to us! We know you have it!"

Hinata yelled back, "I-I don't have anything!"

Deidara silenced both of them, "Tobi! Settle!"

Tobi hushed immediately.

Deidara continued, "Well… We are referring to that pretty little thing around your neck."

Hinata looked down at her wide array of necklaces. She had on Kiba and Shino's dog tags as somewhat of a relic of them, and a small sapphire pendant with odd little metal markings encasing it that her mother had passed down to her.

"Y-You mean the dog tags? Why do you need those?" she asked hurriedly.

He snickered even more, "No. Why would I need those? I already have your friend's lives why would I need their tags?"

She squirmed in rage at his remarks. "That bastard!" she thought, "He'll pay for this!"

He laughed, "No. What I'm talking about is that little pendant, eh? The one around that pretty little neck of yours."

She looked at him confused. Why did they track her down just to get a family heirloom? She hesitated, "T-This was my mother's…" she started yelling, "Why do you need it?"

He smiled, "Do you know what that little trinket is?"

She looked at him and then shook her head.

He laughed, "Heh. That's alright. It was meant to be that way anyways," he continued, "That little necklace is actually a catalyst for helping draw out spirits. Did you know that?"

She looked at him, "Wh-What?"

Tobi interrupted, "Yeah! It makes it so we could draw out a spirit without us being harmed and lets us gain control over the spirits much more easily. So hand it over!"

She eyed both of them, "Why would you need to extract spirits?"

Deidara said casually, "Well. The Ataksuki's ultimate goal is gain control over a certain jinchuuriki."

She asked worried, "Which one?"

He snickered when Tobi said in a very serious tone, "The Kyubbi no Kitsune."

She shuddered. Why in the world would they release that horrible atrocity into the world again? It was bad enough that she even knew who the Kyubbi was.

Deidara slowly approached her and held the face of the pendant in his hand and looked into her eyes. "All we wanted in the first place was to get this little thing from you. But you had to run away from us. Now if you don't mind, we'll just snatch this and be on our way."

He suddenly saw her eyes wrinkle up and her eyes turned a deep purple. She focused her chakra into the palms of her hands and yelled, "Shugohakke Rokujūyon Shō: Protection of the Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms!"

Deidara chuckled, "Didn't I already say that you couldn't break free…"

And on that note, Hinata's clay prison exploded into dust and she landed in front of Deidara.

His eye twitched, "Well… That was unexpected."

She charged up her chakra in her hands again, "Jūho Sōshiken: Gentle Step: Twin Lion Fists!"

Just before she could start charging at him, Tobi made a few signs, and silently spoke, "Mangekyō Sharingan!"

She shuddered and fell to the ground as she was fighting an internal hell within her. She writhed on the floor, flinching in agony, grunting trying to suppress her screaming.

Deidara eyed Tobi strangely, wondering how he was suppressing her, but brushed it off. He walked up to her, yanked the necklace off of her neck and said, "Thanks, hun. Gotta go no…"

But before he could go any further, he gasped for breath. Something… no. Someone had punched him hard in the stomach. Deidara was knocked back into Tobi, thus ruining his concentration for the sharingan, releasing Hinata from his grasp. She gasped for breath while still flinching on the floor. Once she caught her breath a little, she looked up from the ground to see a very pissed off Naruto, already red flares in his once cerulean eyes. She didn't know why, but she felt the presence of someone's… no. Something's chakra that was welling up inside Naruto, making him incredibaly vicious.

"Hinata-chan, You alright?" he gritted through his teeth.

She slowly got up and stumbled to a stand, "Y-Yeah. I-I'm okay." Suddenly realizing what had happened, she frantically started feeling her neck, noticing that the pendant was gone.

"T-The necklace!" she shouted.

He looked back at her questioningly, until he heard a grunt from Deidara as he pushed himself off of Tobi and came up to a stand. Naruto growled. Deidara regained his composure, clutching the necklace in his hand and grinned toward Hinata.

"So. Hinata-chan is it? Well," he held his fingers to lips, "Thanks for the present."

Naruto raced toward them. While Deidara disappeared. Tobi, however, was still there.

Tobi chuckled at Naruto and Hinata's confusion in the smoke bomb, "Come now, Jinchuuriki-san. No need to get too excited here."

Naruto roared, "Fucking bastards! Die!"

He lunged at him, but Tobi escaped as well in a cloud of smoke. They had gotten away. He crumbled to the floor in anger and resentment.

Hinata took notice and ran over to him, "N-Naruto-kun! A-Are you alright?"

She grabbed hold of his shoulders to try and examine him for any wounds. However, he squeezed her wrists hard, preventing her from going any further with him. He gasped in anger, trying to suppress his rage, while Hinata gazed shocked at him. When he finally looked up at her, he saw that look of shock and horror and his red gaze was gone.

He had finally gotten back to normal breathing and whispered, ashamed, "Y-Yeah…" he got up and turned out toward the door. "Sorry, Hinata-chan…"

He ran out the door with shame and chagrin in his heart and left Hinata there, her arms still positioned where his shoulders once were.

* * *

Notes: Sorry for the long chapter gap! I was really stuck on the Kiba and Shino death scene. I had everything else planned except that little scene. It's not that I don't like Kiba or Shino, but their deaths push the story into the direction that I was going in so I'm sorry to any Kiba or Shino fans. I feel your pain. I also don't know when I decided that all sailors spoke in a Scottish/Celtic accent. Haha.

Oh! And I want to thank everyone for the reviews. I'm not one of those authors that needs reassurance to continue a story after a certain amount of reviews, but none the less, they are nice. :D And special thanks to **Chewie Cookies **for making a very good point on whether or not this story is before or after the Pain Arc since I referred to Naruto as a sage in the first chapter. Well… I made it so the Pein Arc never happened. I referred to him as a sage because this story time skips all the way to when they are all 18 years old and at the time that I started writing this fanfic, it was only the beginning of the sage arc. (I know! It took me a long ass time typing it up and putting it up here! lol) Also, it is a common adjective for him, so I ran with it.

Looking back at my written draft of the story, I think that this is a rather Hinata centric fanfiction. I think that all of the extra screen time and description are all needed though. Hinata doesn't have a lot of screen time in the anime or the manga, thus making her character a little underdeveloped for my liking. And since she is one of the main characters in this story, I thought that the extra alone time was needed for her. I am a sucker for old fashion romance. Meaning that I like stories that give a lot of character development to the couple before they dive into any romantic actions. Like a couple that had been friends for years before they became a couple. That is my ideal kind of relationship. I definitely despise any story that is like Romeo and Juliet and they fall in love in like one day and they are getting married. lol

Once again, thanks for the reviews everyone. It's nice to get feedback, good or bad, from all of you.

Wow... this was a really depressing chapter.

Comments, suggestions, or flames are welcome. I would just prefer suggestions to help better my writing. Thank you for reading. :D


	5. Plans Formulating Truths Revealed!

Disclaimer: I do not own the Naruto characters used in this fanfiction. All Naruto characters are property of Masashi Kishimoto. I am not using this fanfiction for my own profit.

Guide: Kyubbi speaking will be in italics and when these: **** come up, it is a private conversation with the kyubbi unless said otherwise.

Chapter 5: Plans are Formulating and Truths are Revealed!

The wind had died down a little but it was still pouring rain. Deidara and Tobi were gliding across the sky on one of Deidara's "masterpieces,"

It had been a while since either one of them had spoken, until Tobi broke the ice, "Deidara-sempai. What are we going to do now that we have that little reliquary?"

He glanced back at Tobi bewildered. He displayed so much power and aggression back at the ship and now acts like a clueless child? He snickered, "Well… If we continue to go to the Hidden Snow Village, we will most likely run into those two again."

Tobi interrupted, "What makes you say that?"

He sighed, annoyed and pulled out a few small pieces of paper and studied them carefully before mumbling, "You really are a brainless idiot, eh?... Remember when we started intercepting the messages from the Snow to the Leaf?"

Tobi pondered it for a few seconds and yelled out with a snap of his finger, "Oh yeah!"

Deidara shrugged even more, "Yeah… Well, the boss wanted us to get that healing scroll…"

Tobi interrupted again with triumph in his voice, "But then we found that brat on the way again!"

Deidara chuckled, looked at the stolen pendant, and clutched it hard in his hand, feeling a slight energy come from it that made him crave the power. "Yup. We killed two birds with one stone … I guess lady luck is on our side, eh?"

Tobi clapped, "Yes! She is, Deidara-sempai!" He giggled until he stopped suddenly and then turned back to a crystal entranced Deidara, "So… What do we do now? We're not going to have to deal with those brats again are we?"

Deidara looked up from the crystal up ahead to the distant horizon and smiled coyly, "Don't worry, Tobi. This time… we have the upper hand…" He reached into his pocketful of clay, devising his next scheme.

* * *

Naruto rushed out onto the deck, where he could see the two Akatsuki hovering in the sky far ahead of him. He was too late.

"God damnit!" he yelled and kicked a random box, "They got away!" He murmured more cuss words, and threw a shaking fist into the air, suppressing the urge to pop a hole in the deck. His fist stayed there for a few seconds until his hand stopped shaking and he lowered it calmly.

He remembered Hinata's face. Her horror stricken face. He collapsed mentally, "Shit. Now she must know about him… I mean, the look in her eyes… Gah! Damnit all!" He kicked another box.

_Why are you so concerned with this girl anyway? Nothing more than a weakling… Like all women. And I was about to have fun…_

"Not in the mood! Leave me alone!"

_Kind of hard to do when I am imprisoned inside you, dumbass._

"…Shut up…" he grunted out between his teeth.

_Hehe. Don't look now, but here comes that little whelp now…_

Hinata rushed out onto the deck and saw that those two men had gotten away. With that necklace too. "No!" she whispered shocked. It was gone. It didn't make any sense to her. Why would they release the Kyubbi again? And why did they call Naruto "Jinchuuriki-san"?

Naruto saw her distressed look and ran over to her. "Hinata," he said, "I-I'm sorry…"

She was on the verge of tears. She had let her guard down and he was apologizing to her. She shook them back, cursing herself for being so weak.

"N-No, Naruto. D-Don't a-apologize. It was m-my fault. I should have p-paid more attention."

Naruto looked at her confused, "Hinata, you didn't do anything wrong." He glared at the sky again with a hate filled gleam, "I should have taken care of them while I had the chance…" He glanced back at her, "You okay?"

She nodded, "Y-Yeah… I'm fine."

He looked back at the sky, wondering aloud, "How did they even find us? What did they want?"

Hinata paused, "T-The necklace…" she place her hand over her chest, stroking her collar bone where it once rested.

Naruto looked back at her, "What necklace?"

Hinata looked down and mumbled, "My mother's…"

"What?" Naruto stepped closer to her.

Hinata held back her tears, "M-My mother's."

Naruto wasn't as thick headed as most presumed him to be. He noticed how her eyes were welling up. "Hey! Don't worry!" he knelt down beside her, "We'll get it back! Believe it!" ((I'm sick of him saying believe it. :p))

She glanced up and smiled weakly at him, "T-Thank you, Naruto-kun."

He smiled back, "No problem," he glanced up at the sky, "but why did they want that damn thing?"

She hesitated, "Uh… W-Well… They said that i-it was a 'catalyst for extracting spirits'"

Naruto froze, "S-Spirts?"

Hinata continued, "Y-Yes. They said that t-they were g-going to extract the K-Kyubbi…"

Naruto looked back and forth between Hinata and the sky, "Shit!" he thought, "Great! Now there after me! But wait! How did they even find us? How could they know that her necklace was a ca…ca… whatever it was! "

His head shot back when Hinata spoke, "N-Naruto-kun?"

"Yeah?" He asked a little worried.

Hinata paused. She then got up and slowly swayed to the guardrail and leaned up on it, "Um… W-Why d-did they call you 'Jinchuuriki-san'?"

He followed, and leaned next to her, "Huh?"

She spoke again, "T-They called you 'Jinchuuriki-san' back in the cabin. And… I-I sensed another chakra system in you. I wonder w-why?"

His eyes widened and his breath stopped, "Shit! She knows!" he panicked inwardly. Hinata noticed his shock in his eyes. "N-Naruto-kun?" she looked at him concerned.

He sighed and asked, "Hinata-chan… what did this chakra feel like?"

She looked at him confused, but racked her mind to try and come up with words to describe its earlier presence, "Um… I guess it w-was more… intense than normal, you know? Almost…" she hesitated, "d-demonic."

His head sunk lower in fear, "Shit… Now she definitely knows," he thought.

She paused to think up of a way to take back that word she had said; fearing it upset him. An awkward silence feel between them again. Naruto hesitated and tried to speak but the words seemed to escape him. They both stood there; too afraid to continue the conversation.

"Well… Here it goes," he thought before he finally spoke. "Hinata-chan…"

"Y-Yes…" she tried to egg him on a little more.

The dreaded silence finally got to him and he spat out, "The other chakra system you saw was the nine-tailed fox!"

She stood frozen and confused, "W-What are you talking about?" she studdered, "The nine-tailed fox w-was destroyed 19 years-ago!"

He slumped even more in shame, "No, Hinata-chan… When I was a baby, the Yondame Hokage sealed him inside of me."

She gasped inauidibly and stood stunned, "Is this why he was treated so badly all of these years?"

He looked momentarily into her eyes and turned away; regretting his confession. He mumbled, "That's why the chakra you felt was 'demonic'."

She slowly walked up to him and, very unexpectedly, wrapped her arms around his neck and hugged him tightly. Wide-eyed and confused he looked down at her while she spoke into his shoulder, "I-I'm sorry, Naruto-kun. It m-must be hard."

His eyes squinted a little from the small smile that was forming on his face. He slowly returned the hug, "It gets hard sometimes. But people like you make it easier to live with, Hinata-chan."

All of a sudden, he felt her body go limp on him. Naturally, after realizing that she was hugging him and he hugged her back, she fainted.

Shocked, he looked down at her, "Oh god! Why do you faint?"

He suddenly heard the pounding of footsteps and looked over to see Captain Olaf running dead at them, "Lad! Is she alright?"

He looked back, "Yeah! She's fine. She does this all the time."

The Captain looked shocked, "She FAINTS all the time?"

Naruto gave him a yeah-I-know-its-ridiculous look and stated, "Yup."

He looked at him worried and continued, "Okay… Well maybe we should take her to the cabin?"

Naruto simply grunted in agreement. They soon both made their way back to the cabin. Just as the captain opened the door, he whispered, "Take good care of her, lad."

Naruto looked back and nodded, "Will do."

He helped him hoist Hinata's limp body securely into his arms. He was holding her almost like a frail and fragile new born baby, pressing her face into his neck and his hands firmly on her back and her thighs.

He almost winced and the sound of shrill squeaks that came from the door closing. He felt Hinata stir in his arms and whisper, "N-Naruto-kun?"

* * *

He stopped and whispered back, "Hey, Hinata-chan."

"W-Where am I?" she asked.

"We're back in the cabin, here, hold on," he gently sat her up on the bed. She struggled at first, but she eventually found her balance and sat on the edge of the bed. He sat down next to her and asked, "You okay?"

She felt a little dizzy and really warm, but she nodded, "Mhm. I'm fine." She straightened herself out wit Naruto leaning toward her, ready to help.

"Are you sure you're okay?"

"Yeah," she smiled, "Thank you."

He smiled back and put his hand on her shoulder and rubbed her back.

She sighed, "W-What happened?"

He chuckled, "You fainted out of nowhere."

She felt even more warm now and felt her ears burning with embarrassment. She sunk her head down and said, "S-Sorry…"

He quickly squeezed her in his arms, "Hey, its okay. Just warn me next time you do that!"

She gave a quick, breathy laugh and said in between, "O-Okay. Next time."

He let go and then got up and paced around a little, "Well, I might go change now; get ready for bed," and turned toward her.

"Y-Yeah. We might get up early anyway," she replied.

He nodded, "I'll go after you."

She smiled and got up, "Okay." She walked over toward the bathroom door. As she opened the door, she paused, "Uh… Naruto-kun… What you did…I…. uhh…. Thank you."

He glanced over at her and smiled, "No prob, Hinata-chan. It's my nindo to protect my friends no matter what. That means you too."

She blushed a little and smiled as she started closing the door, "Thank you. I'm going to take a small shower and I-I'll be out quickly."

"That's fine," he replied sitting on the edge of the bed. She smiled again and gently closed the door. Naruto thunked his head down onto the bed and let the night sink into him.

"Oh god…" he thought, "I can't believe I told her." He then suddenly heard the water running in the shower.

Hinata walked in the shower and let its warmth consume her. She always loved showers. It was one of the ways she could escape the rising family drama in her house and clear her head. It usually calmed her down, but not so much this time. As she scrubbed her hair, she thought about what happened during the night, "He's cursed with the demon fox," she thought. She glanced over on her right shoulder and saw the haunting ink, "I'm not so different." It had the same design as Neji's and she assumed that it did the same thing it would do if Hinata ever used his curse against him. But she never would. She never thought it was her place to control and destroy Neji like that. She knew that something bad would happen if HE activated it though. She was lucky that he didn't do so tonight.

Her thoughts broke when she heard Naruto mumbling. She stopped scrubbing and pressed her ear against the wall. She heard him talking to himself, or at least what assumed to be himself.

_So… You finally told her. How did she take it? Hehehe_

"It's not funny, dammnit! She felt sorry for me, but she never said whether or not she accepted me. I think that she thinks I'm a monster now…" He explained.

Hinata had a saddened look on her face, but she continued to listen.

_Well… Its not like you aren't._

"Shut up! I'm not you!"

_You aren't are you? Remember what happened with Sakura-chan?_

"Shut up!"

_Or maybe you remember Sasuke-san?_

"Shut. Up. NOW."

_You couldn't even bring him back. You even begged like a pathetic weakling!_

"Shut up, dammnit!" He felt his anger rising again.

_Sasuke! Sasuke! Please come back, Sasuke!_

"Shut up!" he grabbed fistfuls of his hair and lowered his head into his knees, trying to calm himself down.

_So you're right, I guess. You're no monster. You're a COWARD._

"SHUT UP!" he finally punched the wall, shocking Hinata in the shower.

_Hehe… Fine… Coward._

Naruto grunted in anger and tried to calm himself down.

Hinata leaned he back against the wall and took in all she heard. She whispered, "You're not him, Naruto-kun…" She bent her head back in the shower and tried to think of something to say…

Eventually, Naruto heard the water turn off and just a few minutes later, she came out in a pair of her usual sweat pants and a white tank top. She had her hair up in a low ponytail for a change and he caught a glimpse of her full face. Which wasn't a bad thing to him. She smiled, "Uh… D-Do you want to use it now?" He smiled weakly and said, "Sure. Thanks," in a small voice. She stepped away from the door and set her stuff down on the edge of the bed. Naruto got up and was walking toward the door. As he walked by, Hinata sighed with anxiousness. She needed to tell him how she felt. She just needed to. By impulse, Hinata went behind him and wrapped her arms around his waist; stopping him in his tracks.

Confused, he muttered out, "Uh… H-Hinata-chan?"

She paused for a second and then spoke into his shoulder blades, " Naruto-kun, you're not a monster. In fact, if it wasn't for you, the village, me, and everyone else would be in ruins."

Was he hearing right? He tried to process what she had said, but all he could come up with was, "H-How did you?..."

He was cut off, "I heard you in the shower."

"O-Oh…" he looked away and blushed.

She smiled, and let him go, "You're a hero, Naruto-kun," she said without hesitation, "and don't ever forget that."

He stood there, silent. He couldn't believe it! ((excuse the pun… :P)) Yeah, Sakura and the others he told accepted him, but they never put it in that way. And it was Hinata of all people saying this!

He spoke dumbfounded, "H-Hinata-chan…" he continued, "I… uh… ah… Thanks…"

She smiled endearingly at him then turned away, slightly blushing and said, "Y-Your Welcome."

* * *

Notes: I want to first off thank **Leaf Ranger** for making a really good point on how Deidara and Tobi could track down Hinata in the first place. I hope that this chapter will help answer some questions. However, if anyone has questions for me, please ask me. I usually make a point of replying to reviews as soon as I get them. Also, I know that the Kyubbi seems really out of character, so bear with me.

Oh! And if any of you like piano covers of videogame/anime/Disney movie songs, please listen to this beautiful angel. .com/user/kylelandry His name is Kyle Landry and he will soon be my future husband! haha. I wish… But seriously, he has such amazing talent and he brings me to tears with his songs. His playing is a big inspiration for a lot of my writing. Just thought I would maybe throw in some cool music at ya'll.

Sorry for the long update! Between the holidays and college, it has been pretty hectic to say the least. Especially with Calculus. Luckily I was able to pull off a C for that class. I was pretty shocked when I found out. But yeah, hope you enjoyed the latest installment of A Hero's Promise.

Oh! And if you haven't noticed already, there is a special poll that I have on my profile that will help me with the next story that I'm writing! Your input is needed and appreciated! Please vote on my poll! Also, I have a youtube channel which is here .com/user/sonyjedi1672 feel free to add me as a friend, but make sure that you send me a private message so I know that it is a person from fanfiction. I hate friend spammers. You know, the people that only add you as a friend so they can get more pageviews or whatever. :p

Comments, suggestions, or flames are welcome. I would just prefer suggestions to help better my writing. Thank you for reading. :D


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